Not surprisingly, XPeng Motors’ 2022 is another year of “huge losses”.
On March 17, XPeng Motors disclosed its 2022 financial report, as the latest of the three major new automakers to disclose its financial report, XPeng Motors’ financial report will naturally not be too good-looking, and data such as a full-year loss of 9.14 billion, a year-on-year expansion of 88% and a gross margin of only 9.4% are enough to prove how difficult XPeng Motors is in the past 2022.
However, although the performance in 2022 is hugely lossy, after the disclosure of the financial report, XPeng Motors’ stock price did not fall but rose, and the intraday increase even exceeded 13%, and finally closed up 6.12%, and the stock price closed at 8.84 US dollars / share, showing unexpected.
For XPeng Motors’ earnings report and stock price performance after the disclosure of financial reports, many media believe that this may mean that XPeng Motors, which fell to the bottom in 2022, will usher in a bottoming rebound in 2023. However, according to Kanjian Finance, XPeng Motors is currently facing multiple problems such as a continuous decline in sales, sluggish sales of new models, and intensified competition in the industry.
From the current point of view, it is true that XPeng Motors will fall to the bottom in 2022, but in the face of the increasingly competitive new energy market, there is obviously huge uncertainty about whether it can achieve a bottoming out in 2023.
It is an Indisputable Fact That We Have Fallen Behind
As one of the three major new forces in car manufacturing, it is undeniable that XPeng Motors has had an extremely bright performance.
It was once the “sales champion” among the new forces in 2021 – the total delivery volume in 2021 reached 98,155 units, beating NIO’s 91,400 units and Li Auto’s 90,500 units, and the growth rate was as high as 3.6 times, and the growth momentum was very fierce.
However, XPeng’s peak was very short-lived, and after winning the “sales championship” in 2021, it began to fall behind quickly in 2022.
According to the data disclosed by XPeng Motors, the total sales volume of XPeng Motors in 2022 will be 120757 units, a year-on-year increase of 23% over 2021, and the signs of declining sales growth are very obvious, and compared with peers, they are 152073 Nezha Motors, 133246 Li Auto, and 122486 NIO, and XPeng Motors has fallen to fourth place.
Of course, the overtaking of sales is only one of the signs that XPeng Motors has fallen behind, and its financial data is more comprehensive.
On March 17, XPeng Motors disclosed its 2022 financial report. According to financial report data, XPeng Motors’ revenue in 2022 was 26.855 billion, an increase of only 27.95% compared with 20.988 billion in 2021; The net profit achieved was a loss of 9.139 billion, an increase of 88% compared with the net profit loss of 4.863 billion in 2021, and the performance was dismal.
Looking only at revenue and net profit, XPeng Motors not only lost its growth rate, but also fell into the “black hole” of losses.
Comparing XPeng Motors with NIO, which is also one of the three major new forces in car manufacturing, NIO’s revenue in 2022 is 49.269 billion yuan, and the attributable net profit is a loss of 14.559 billion yuan, although the loss is much higher than that of XPeng Motors, but its revenue is also more than 20 billion higher than XPeng Motors, just looking at revenue, NIO’s volume is obviously much higher than XPeng Motors.
According to the financial report, the revenue of Li Auto in 2022 will be 45.287 billion, and the attributable net profit will be 2.012 billion, although Li Auto is still in a loss state, but it is the closest to profitability among the current new car-making forces, both in revenue and net profit is far better than XPeng Motors.
In addition to revenue and net profit, XPeng Auto’s gross profit margin in 2011 was only 9.4%, down two percentage points from last year, while Li Auto’s gross profit margin was as high as 19.1%, more than twice that of XPeng Motors, and there was obviously a big gap between the two.
Whether from the sales volume or performance data, XPeng Motors has fallen behind, and how to stop the decline is the next key for XPeng Motors and He Xiaopeng.
Will the Decline Be Stopped?
In the face of declining sales, He Xiaopeng chose to personally pick up the “scalpel” to XPeng Motors.
Back in September last year, XPeng Motors’ flagship model G9 was officially launched, but due to the complex selection logic and pricing strategy of the product, the G9 encountered “Waterloo” when it went on the market – it became the only model in history to reduce the price by 30,000 in just two days on the market.
In fact, the complex issue of selection and pricing strategy has always been the “common disease” of XPeng Motors. Even on the most successful model, the XPeng P7, there are different battery packs, E, G, N three different model versions, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium battery types of multiple choices, although the number of models has been continuously reduced, there are still 9 models to choose from.
The failure of XPeng G9 became the fuse, and then XPeng Motors held an internal meeting to make a major adjustment to the organizational structure, established five major committees including strategy, production planning, technology, sales and OTA, and established three virtual product matrix organizations, namely E platform product matrix, F platform product matrix and H platform product matrix, and He Xiaopeng personally served as the director of the product and strategy committee.
In addition to the organizational restructuring, XPeng’s internal executives have also undergone tremendous changes. Among them, Xia Heng, co-founder and president of XPeng Motors, resigned as an executive director of the company’s board of directors, and was formerly the vice president and general manager of brand public relations of XPeng MotorsLiCheng also chose to leave, and later Wang Fengying, known as the “Iron Lady of Automobiles”, joined XPeng Motors and held important positions.
Judging from the actions of XPeng Motors in recent months, it is undeniable that He Xiaopeng is indeed making drastic reforms.
However, from the perspective of sales, these changes of XPeng Motors have not had much effect. According to data disclosed by XPeng Motors, in January and February this year, XPeng Motors’ sales were 5,218 and 6,010 units respectively, and according to XPeng’s expectations, its sales in March may be between 6,700 and 7,700 units, although it has rebounded, but it still has not recovered to the level of breaking 10,000 in a single month.
In addition, in terms of products, on March 10, XPeng Motors launched the mid-term facelift model of XPeng P7 – the new P7i, but unlike the current number of car companies have lowered prices, the starting price of the new P7i of 249,900 yuan not only has not decreased compared with XPeng P7, but also increased by 40,000 yuan, which may make the recovery of XPeng Motors more difficult.
From the actions and sales in recent months, XPeng Motors has indeed made a lot of changes, but now it has not stopped the downward momentum.
How Far is It from “Bottoming Out”?
Although the financial report data is not good, after the financial report was disclosed, XPeng Motors’ stock price ushered in a sharp rise.
According to statistics, after the disclosure of the financial report, the US stock listed XPeng Motors rose sharply at the open, and the intraday increase even exceeded 13%, and finally closed up 6.12%, and the stock price closed at 8.84 US dollars / share, the performance can be said to be quite eye-catching.
On the one hand, the performance continues to decline, but on the other hand, the sudden “outbreak” of the stock price, many media believe that this may mean that XPeng Motors, which fell to the bottom in 2022, is likely to usher in a bottoming rebound in 2023. On the earnings call, He Xiaopeng, chairman of XPeng Motors, said that he is confident of resuming sales and market share growth: “I think XPeng Motors is about to usher in a turning point, because we see what our goals are, what our strengths and our weaknesses are.” ”
However, from the current point of view, it is true that XPeng Motors will fall to the bottom in 2022, but it is uncertain whether it can bottom out and rebound in 2023.
On the one hand, sales are currently declining throughout the automotive market. According to data disclosed by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to February this year, automobile production and sales reached 3.626 million units and 3.625 million units, respectively, down 14.5% and 15.2% y/y.
Obviously, after experiencing the “big year” of automobile consumption in 2022, the demand for domestic cars will probably decline in 2023, and XPeng Motors wants to achieve a bottoming out in the overall decline environment, and the difficulty can be imagined.
On the other hand, at present, the head car companies are fighting a price war, and it is not easy for XPeng Motors to compete for food. At the beginning of this year, Tesla sharply lowered the price, officially started the price war, and then such as GAC Aion, Leap Auto, Nezha Automobile and other new energy vehicle companies with good sales last year have lowered their prices, and the new energy “brother” BYD is even more increased and reduced prices, the new Han and Tang champion version starting price is about 210,000, in the face of such fierce competition, what “hole card” does XPeng Motors have to achieve a bottoming out?
In fact, after experiencing a period of rapid development in the past few years, the dividends of the new energy vehicle market are gradually fading, and the price war between car companies may continue for a longer period of time; For XPeng Motors, it is still in a state of huge losses, and there are many competitors in its models, coupled with the continuous decline in sales, it is not easy to hold on to the decline and not continue to decline.
Of course, from the 2022 financial report, XPeng Motors’ account funds still have 38.25 billion yuan, which may be the biggest positive news. However, although the “ammunition” is sufficient, in such a competitive environment, there will not be much time left for XPeng Motors.
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